Giant Penis on Drawbridge Wins Russian Art Award

by Jeff Schult

Size matters. So does audacity, don't you think?

Best graffiti, ever. Voina, a radical art group in Russia, painted a 220-foot-long phallus on St Petersburg's Liteiny Bridge in protest at heightened security in the city ahead of June's International Economic Forum.

Voina is Russian for “War.” The group’s work, entitled “A Penis In KGB Captivity,” won them 400,000 rubles (more than $14,000) from the Russian culture ministry, but they skipped last week's award ceremony in Moscow and haven't revealed if they'll accept the prize.

We’re trying to imagine what would happen to some artist or artists who tried this on pretty much any drawbridge in the United States. We’re thinking that there wouldn’t be any cash prizes involved.